Robotic Future News: 2006-10-08

Librarians

http://roboticnation.blogspot.com/2004/02/robots-and-librarians.html

http://www.medicalinformaticsinsider.com/

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=323342

"If one simply dials in the coordinates and lets the robot go to town, why would it require a MD to drive it?"

"This may not be the end of the pharmacist role, but certainly the end of the six figure paycheck."

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=21171&in_page_id=2

"Soldiers may no longer have to call for a medic on the battlefield – thanks to a robot which can pick up the wounded and carry them to safety."

Voice to Voice Translation

http://www.cio.com/blog_view.html?CID=25719

"IBM has previously worked on three other language versions of Mastor to varying extents, Nahamoo said: English-to-Mandarin Chinese, English-to-modern standard Arabic and English-to-Spanish.

The company is keen to explore other avenues for the technology and already has a relationship in place with a commercial partner, Sharp. The Japanese company is to introduce a Japanese-to-English translation PDA later this year that is based on some of IBM’s technologies in Mastor, notably its speech-recognition and text-to-speech capabilities, Nahamoo said."

Robotic Soldier

http://www.wrcbtv.com/news/index.cfm?sid=3859

Quad-Core Shipping

http://www.tgdaily.com/2006/10/11/intel_kentsfield/

1.2 Petabytes in 2011?

http://www.p2pnet.net/story/7929
There will probably be at least about 5-10 terabytes.

http://people.tribe.net/natevoodoo/blog/3ddb4947-68c2-44a7-b4fe-8cf07767c5ec

"2009: A $1,000 personal computer can perform about a trillion calculations per second. (10,000 times more is needed to simulate the brain, the power for which will come around 2019)

Personal computers with high-resolution visual displays come in a range of sizes, from those small enough to be embedded in clothing and jewelry up to the size of a thin book.

Cables are disappearing. Communication between components uses short-distance wireless technology. High-speed wireless communication provides access to the Web.

The majority of text is created using continuous speech recognition. Also ubiquitous are language user interfaces (LUIs).

Most routine business transactions (purchases, travel, reservations) take place between a human and a virtual personality. Often, the virtual personality includes an animated visual presence that looks like a human face.

Although traditional classroom organization is still common, intelligent courseware has emerged as a common means of learning.

Pocket-sized reading machines for the blind and visually impaired, "listening machines" (speech-to-text conversion) for the deaf, and computer- controlled orthotic devices for paraplegic individuals result in a growing perception that primary disabilities do not necessarily impart handicaps.

Translating telephones (speech-to-speech language translation) are commonly used for many language pairs.

Accelerating returns from the advance of computer technology have resulted in continued economic expansion. Price deflation, which had been a reality in the computer field during the twentieth century, is now occurring outside the computer field. The reason for this is that virtually all economic sectors are deeply affected by the accelerating improvement in the price performance of computing.

Human musicians routinely jam with cybernetic musicians.
Bioengineered treatments for cancer and heart disease have greatly reduced the mortality from these diseases.

The neo-Luddite movement is growing."

Relevant MIT Groups

http://cci.mit.edu/
http://www.media.mit.edu/cogmac/
http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/humanoid-robotics-group/
http://www.csail.mit.edu/index.php
http://entrepreneurship.mit.edu/

"Successful entrepreneurs understand the importance of making connections with potential technology, funding, and marketing partners."

bachelor's > master's > PhD > postdoctoral
about 22 24-26 26-30 27-35
2008 2010-2012 2012-2016(robot time) 2013-2021 (human brain simulation time)(for 2008 graduate)

"Chinese scientists invent first cooking robot"

http://english.people.com.cn/200610/10/eng20061010_310456.html

"The robot will go on sale in 2007, and will enter Chinese homes sometime in the future."

http://roboticnation.blogspot.com/2004/06/kiosks-coming-to-mcdonalds-near-you.html
http://roboticnation.blogspot.com/2005/05/electronic-menu-system.html

http://marshallbrain.com/robotic-nation.htm

"By 2008, every meal in every fast food restaurant will be ordered from a kiosk or from a similar system embedded in each table." (It might take until at least 2010).

"Nearly every 'normal' job that had been filled by a human being in 2001 was filled by a robot instead. At restaurants, robots did all the cooking, cleaning and order taking. At construction sites, robots did everything -- Robots poured the concrete, laid brick, built the home's frame, put in the windows and doors, sided the house, roofed it, plumbed it, wired it, hung the drywall, painted it, etc. At the airport, robots flew the planes, sold the tickets, moved the luggage, handled security, kept the building clean and managed air traffic control. At the hospital robots cared for the patients, cooked and delivered the food, cleaned everything and handled many of the administrative tasks. At the mall, stores were stocked, cleaned and clerked by robots. At the amusement park, hundreds of robots ran the rides, cleaned the park and sold the concessions. On the roads, robots drove all the cars and trucks. Companies like Fedex, UPS and the post office had huge numbers of robots instead of people sorting packages, driving trucks and making deliveries."

"The last known supercomputer in the Blue Gene series, Blue Gene/Q is expected to reach 3[-10] petaflops" around 2010. (Kurzweil says 10 petaflops are required to simulate the human brain)

Leonardo da Vinci designed the first robot in recorded history.

MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences

http://web.mit.edu/bcs/

"We want to know how the mind works." (relevant to simulating the mind)

"In the study of the human brain, the painstaking pace of scientific progress has given way to an exhilarating era of promise, progress and speed. Powerful new tools and insights, many developed here at MIT, are creating a moment of extraordinary opportunity, an irresistible chance to unravel persistent puzzles of the brain and mind."

http://web.mit.edu/bcss/www/ - MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences Society